


It's A Date

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Asexuality, Coffee Shops, College, M/M, Painting, Science Fiction, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 09:38:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11310681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kyungsoo's professor was far more distracting than he would have liked to admit.





	It's A Date

Sex never really interested Kyungsoo.  
  
Sure, he had tried it once or twice, but the innate, primal _need_ that most of his peers felt seemed to elude him. It also didn't help that he had tentacles where arms should have been, which made it even more difficult to find a partner that would desire him in that way in the first place.  
  
His arms were bluish-purple in hue, little round suction cups plastered across them and small, purple moles of the same texture were scattered over the rest of him. His dark hair always seemed to get mussed, and whenever he tried to fix it he'd just end up making it worse, unable to properly manage the unruly strands without the use of fingers.  
  
Thin framed glasses sat perched on his nose, his thick brows pulled tight together in concentration as he dipped the end of his arm in a small blotch of forest green oil based paint on the palette, his lips pursed as he attempted to blow a piece of hair away from his face as his rubbery appendage swiped across the canvas. The stroke left a strange gradient, the paint bubbling up against the surface from the added pressure of his suction cups, the very tip of his tentacle leaving soft lines as he added depth to the leaves on the trees, nearly finished with his depiction of a rainy Victorian London evening.  
  
"Absolutely breathtaking," said a voice behind him, making Kyungsoo nearly flinch as he brought his arm away from the canvas and looked back. His professor stood close by, admiring his work with genuine astonishment, a gentle smile on his full lips. "I love the texture. You never disappoint, Kyungsoo. This is really something."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Kim," Kyungsoo said quietly, taking a few moments to soak up the sight of his professor's proud expression. The man stood quite a bit taller than Kyungsoo while standing and even taller as the student sat on his stool, requiring Kyungsoo to crane his neck to look up at him.  
  
"Those reflections of the street lamps on the wet pavement look absolutely stunning... and the colors of those potted plants are so vibrant. Do you use your arms to mix the paint as well?"  
  
"Most of the time. I can never get a good grip on the knife." Kyungsoo took one more long look at his professor before averting his eyes back to the painting, trying to concentrate on his piece rather than the pervasive thoughts of tanned skin and soft, chocolate brown eyes.

 Professor Kim was attractive. There was no denying that. However, Kyungsoo could never manage to sympathize with the majority of his classmates that would fawn over him and gossip in hushed tones about how hot the man was in the few minutes that preceded each class. A few human girls were particularly annoying, each of them giggling as they confessed their dirty thoughts to each other. They definitely weren’t as subtle as they thought they were. Kyungsoo had caught one of them talking about how they wanted Professor Kim to bend her over his desk and “punish her for being late to class.” The very memory of those words made Kyungsoo want to vomit.

He knew he was being dramatic, but he just didn’t understand why they couldn’t see past the professor’s outward appearance and pay closer attention to the qualities that really mattered, like his polite enthusiasm towards his students, his kind tone of voice that made you instantly feel at ease and confident about yourself, the way his brown hair looked when the sunlight streamed through the windows on a sunny afternoon…

Alright, so perhaps Kyungsoo had had a few passing thoughts about the man’s appearance. But it wasn’t because he liked him. Kyungsoo didn’t like him that way. Not at all.

“Kyungsoo? Did you hear me?”

“Hmm?”

Kyungsoo looked back at his professor and noticed the slight quirk of his brow and the hopeful expression he wore, a subtle pout on his lips that could have easily been missed if he hadn’t looked at his lips first before meeting his eyes.

“I asked if you’d like to get a coffee with me after class. I’d really like to ask you more about your technique, if you don’t mind, that is.”

“Oh.”

_Oh? Was that all he could manage to say in response?_

“Sounds good.”

_Dammit, Kyungsoo, pull yourself together._

“Great! Guess it’s a date then. Looks like we have another twenty minutes left of class, but I’ll circle back around to you after I’m finished with the other students. You seem to have your piece under control.”

Kyungsoo would have thanked him before he walked away with a smile if he had been able to hear anything past the word “date” and hadn’t interpreted the rest of it as a garbled mess. He couldn’t think of anything to do other than to look back at his painting with his mouth gaping like a fish out of water, absentmindedly deciding to just finish it the way it was and clean up after himself instead. He simply dipped his tentacle in the basin of water he kept near his station, the paint easily removed from his arm due to the abnormally textured skin, before toweling off with only a small amount of difficulty, dropping the towel on the floor a couple of times before managing to get dry. It was nearing the end of class before he knew it, students filtering out ahead of him until just the two of them remained.

Professor Kim busied himself with gathering his things from his desk while Kyungsoo waited, shattering anxiety rippling through him as he went over his teacher’s phrasing over and over in his mind until he could no longer avoid packing up his things as well to get ready to leave with him.

“All set?” his professor asked, his messenger bag slung over his shoulder and his sleeves rolled up casually, showing off his thin yet defined human arms.

“Sure.” Kyungsoo mustered up the nicest smile he could. He was truly excited, but he hoped his enthusiasm about getting coffee wasn’t too masked by the fact that he was nervous as hell.

Kyungsoo followed his professor out of the building, passing by numerous variations of humans, hybrids, and the like, but none that looked quite like him. He wasn’t the only humanoid in existence with tentacles for arms by any means, but he wasn’t a commonality either. Other people tended to have tentacles in more _interesting_ places, which had honestly caused more than a few uncomfortable conversations over the years. People tended to think his arms were capable of sexual stimulation, when in fact, Kyungsoo himself was hardly capable of sexual stimulation.

The cafe his professor had in mind was just across the street, the tall human quickly ordering two plain coffees and picking a table on the patio for them.

“I hope you don’t mind the rush. I have another class in an hour,” he said, pulling out a chair for Kyungsoo before sitting down across from him.

“Not at all, I’m sure you’re busy.”

A barista brought out their mugs and a small carafe of milk, the drinks steaming and dark in hue without cream or sugar, the tiny packets sitting in a dish between them to flavor the beverages at their discretion. Kyungsoo liked his coffee on the sweet side, but it would be nearly impossible for him to get one of the packets open by himself, so he settled for looping the end of his tentacle around the thin handle of the carafe and pouring a modest amount of milk into his mug.

“So, about your paintings,” his professor began, his bony fingers wrapped around his warm mug and interlaced prettily. “When did you discover that you could use your arms to create those textures? I can honestly say I’m a bit jealous of your technique.”

“Well, Mr. Kim…”

“Kyungsoo,” he interrupted, smiling as he lifted his mug to his lips and took a drink. “You can call me by my first name. I am only five years older than you, after all.”

“Um, well…” Kyungsoo couldn’t help but be a little distracted by the professor’s hands, not wanting to admit that they were something of the elder’s that _he_ was jealous of. “Jongin… I actually started painting when I was pretty young.” Kyungsoo reached out to hold his mug with both arms, but hissed as soon as they touched, flinching away. The heat soaked through the ceramic and irritated his sensitive skin, trying a few more times before silently giving up.

“Oh, do you need some help?” Jongin asked, reaching out to grab the handle of Kyungsoo’s mug.

“No, really, it’s fi–” Kyungsoo started, but was rendered speechless when Jongin lifted the mug to his mouth and held it there so he could drink it. He blinked rapidly for a while before leaning in as Jongin dipped the mug gently for him, tasting the coffee and wincing from the taste. “It’s a little bitter.”

“Would you like some sugar?”

Kyungsoo was about to object before Jongin reached into the dish and brought out two packets, making him smile earnestly as he muttered that he liked three sugars. Jongin poured them in generously and stirred the coffee until the sugar dissolved, leaning in again to have Kyungsoo taste test it and smiling back when the humanoid hummed at the sweetness.

“I can ask for a disposable cup with a sleeve if you’d like me to.”

“That would be really nice.”

Jongin smiled and stood, excusing himself as he weaved through the tables on the patio to enter the small coffee house. He wasn't gone for long before he came back with a travel mug that had a thick paper sleeve around it, popping the lid off and volunteering to pour Kyungsoo's coffee into it for him.  
  
"Are you always this polite?" Kyungsoo blurted, regretting being so terse once the words left his mouth.  
  
Jongin didn't seem bothered as he laughed in response, placing the lid on the cup for him. "I've been told that I'm painfully optimistic."  
  
"I seem to have the opposite problem," Kyungsoo offered, reaching out a bit tentatively for his cup. He let the tips of his tentacles touch it carefully before wrapping them around to lift it, humming in delight when the heat seeping through felt pleasant rather than scalding. He took a drink of his coffee before looking up at the professor, watching the way the tips of his fingers drummed against his own ceramic mug.  
  
"I don't mean to rush you, but going back to the topic of your paintings," Jongin started. "The first artist that comes to mind would be Leonid Afremov. The textures though, those certainly are unique. It's been a real pleasure to have you in my class this semester and if I'm being honest, you'll definitely be missed after next week's finals. Seeing you work is always refreshing."  
  
Kyungsoo blinked, a bit taken aback by the praise. "Thank you... I don't really know what else to say. 'Thank you' doesn't seem strong enough?" He placed his cup back on the table, fidgeting with his arms and bringing them together. He would have liked to say that he would miss Jongin as well, but that seemed weird.  
  
Would it be weird? It shouldn't be out of place to say that he would miss one of his favorite professors after the course was over, but something about it just seemed too intimate.  
  
"You seem different."  
  
Kyungsoo rose a brow at that, looking at Jongin a bit incredulously for a second before lifting his arms up to display them in a halfhearted shrug. "Uh... yes?"  
  
Jongin nearly spit out his next sip of coffee as he laughed. "No, I mean your personality," he chuckled, reaching for a napkin to wipe his mouth. "You don't say much, but you create these beautiful pieces like you have a lot on your mind. I actually see a lot of myself in you, if that isn't too bold to say."  
  
Kyungsoo didn't mean to laugh bitterly at that, but his lack of a filter shone through as he spoke honestly. "If having tentacles for arms wasn't bad enough, you should see the look on people's faces when I tell them I'm ace. That usually derails any further conversation."  
  
Well, that sort of just slipped out.  
  
Kyungsoo paused and stared down at his arms, expecting the usual reaction. He figured he might as well dismiss himself early and take his drink to go since his professor so conveniently retrieved a disposable cup for him, but when he looked up to do so, he was met with an expression that spelled out fascination rather than shock.  
  
"Wait, so you're asexual too?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Kyungsoo certainly hadn't been expecting that.  
  
"You're the first person that I've met that is so open about it. I can't believe this!" Jongin clapped his hands and smiled earnestly. "You know, I was starting to think that I wouldn't meet anyone that felt the way I did. We should definitely meet up again after you're finished with finals! I know this great restaurant further out of town that has the best seafood around. Oh, but..." he paused, looking at Kyungsoo's arms for a split second before backtracking. "Well, we don't need to eat that, of course, if you're uncomfortable with that..."  
  
Kyungsoo could hardly keep up with him. His mind was scrambled in a twisted mess of _did I really just say that_ and _holy shit did he just say what I think he said_ before Kyungsoo was able to meet Jongin's eyes and form a coherent response. "Wait, are you asking me out? On like, a date?"  
  
Jongin seemed more surprised by that than when he had told him he was ace. "Oh! No! Wait, well... not if you don't want to! I would love to!"  
  
Kyungsoo suddenly felt way too warm. He was overwhelmed by how quickly the topic had changed to this. He reached up and held his face with his would-be hands, staring at the professor with a stupid grin on his face. "I would actually really like that," he said slowly, eventually lowering his arms, unaware that he had left little indented spots on his face from his suction cups.  
  
Jongin bit his lower lip and smiled excitedly, and if he had noticed the marks, he didn't say anything. "Then, it's a date?"  
  
"Yeah," Kyungsoo said with an enamored grin. "It's a date."


End file.
